"What good can you do without money?"

Today a volunteer in my office asked me what I was going to do with my life in the future. I told him I wanted to do work in the field of social work, to work with troubled kids. He laughed out loud and said that I was capable of doing so much more.

He went on to say that there was little good I could do in social work, there was no money in that field and, "What good can you do without money?"

His next statement shocked me and I quote, "I think that Bill Gates is a much better humanitarian than Mother Teresa." This statement angered me at first but I responded,"I guess that depends on what your perspective is on being a humanitarian."

I went on to tell him that I thought Bill Gates and his wads of money could help numbers of nameless-faceless children and people. Surely his new start up schools will benefit many, and I am sure hosts of people have been blessed by his wealth and ability to share. Mother Teresa, on the other hand, mourned with those that mourned, comforted those in need of comfort, and she held children in her arms while they were dying. She sang to the desperate, she brought peace to the hopeless, and she gave all she came in contact with the gift of Christ, the perfect humanitarian.

So I guess it really is how you want to see it.

My desire to do social work is not about saving the world one child at a time-it is, however, about empowering people to make needed changes in their own lives. (Give a man a fish, or teach him how to fish). I am a bleeding heart-idealist who wants to know, at the end of the day, that I made a difference in my life and lives of others around me.

And certainly the greatest of all gifts and all good cost no money!